When it comes to top-tier releases in the country and roots realm, 2019 was a year like we’ve never seen before. Though it feels like we say that every year, 2019 truly was exceptional. The albums selected to be considered for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year are so elite, all of them should be considered the winners. All of them could, and likely would have won on previous years. As a matter of tradition, we’ll try to whittle it down to one. But make no mistake, all nominees deserve top commendation, with the ultimate winner being the country music fans who’ve been able to bask in such quality this year.

There have been as few as three, and as many as 10 nominees in a given year. This year, eight albums have pulled away from the rest to be considered for Album of the Year. Even then, it feels borderline criminal that multiple albums ended up on the bubble. These are albums that in previous years would have probably been considered major nominees. However, these albums and many more will be highlighted in Saving Country Music’s upcoming and more-expansive Essential Albums List that will be published near the end of the year. At the top of the list are always the “Most Essential” albums that should be considered right up there with the Album of the Year nominees as some of the best releases all year. Albums that are not nominees here, but still deserve your utmost consideration and attention are:

Yes, that means great titles like Country Squire by Tyler Childers didn’t even make it, though that is in no way a rebuke of the quality of that record as much as a sign of how tough the field of contenders was in 2019. Also of note: the executive decision was made to combine the two Cody Jinks releases The Wanting and After The Fire together, since they were released on successive weeks, and splitting them up would essentially make Cody Jinks compete against himself, while potentially pushing another important record out of the nominee list. Nonetheless, if you feel one Cody Jinks record is superior to another, don’t be afraid to pipe up with that opinion below.

As always, your feedback isn’t just requested, it will be considered in the final calculations of the eventual winner. So if you have an opinion, please leave it below in the comments section. However, this is not a straight up and down vote. Your opinion will count, but it will count even more if you put the effort out to convince all of us why one album deserves to be considered above the others. And please, no “You Forgot!” comments. You think something has been unfairly omitted? By all means utilize the comments section to inform us of the oversight, and please understand the upcoming Essential Albums list might include your favorites.

Ultimately this isn’t an effort to make music into a competition, and Saving Country Music is not an autocracy. The purpose of this annual exercise is to expand the knowledge base of great music that we all think is the year’s best for the benefit of everyone.

Without further ado, here are your 2019 nominees for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year.

Charlie Marie – Self-Titled

Fine gentlemen of country music, guard your hearts as you foray deep into the music of Charlie Marie, for the very real possibility of falling head over heels in love with this chanteuse is a clear and present concern when partaking in this incredible channeling of country music’s dulcet tones and classic styling. Ladies of country music, lose yourself in the astonishing pain and deeply personal stories that Charlie Marie spins in the timeless fashion of Patsy Cline, and in such an incredibly haunting manner you feel like you’ve fallen into an immersive suspension of 50’s country musical goodness.

All the people of country music, rejoice that despite all the woes about whatever is supposedly endangering the genre on a given day, in the hearts of gifted entertainers still lies such incredible passion and talent for this music, it has the ability to make the spine tingle, the heart swoon, and the mind spark with wonder and nostalgia like it did the first time you heard your first country song, and you knew it was the style of music that spoke to your soul most personally. Listening to Charlie Marie’s new self-titled EP is falling in love with country music all over again, reminding you why you got wrapped up in caring about this music in the first place, and finding yourself thankful for being alive in an era when an artist like this can still be discovered despite the oppressive media regime that disallows someone like Charlie Marie from being broadcast to the masses.

The old soul is rendered sated in the presence of Charlie Marie’s self-titled EP, with the only hope being that the future affords even more music from this brilliant, gifted, and compelling classic country music performer. (read full review)

Cody Jinks – The Wanting & After The Fire

Just as the current generation of true country fans looks back with envy at the era when artists like Willie, Waylon, Haggard and Jones were in their heyday, and fans of the 70’s reminisced back on the time when the likes of Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and Patsy Cline reigned supreme, so will future generations reflect back on the present day when a group of independent performers rallied together to mark an incredible year for country music, and Cody Jinks didn’t just release one career-level record, he released two of them in successive weeks that went on to challenge for #1 in the charts. And Jinks did it not as an independently-signed artist, but as an artist not signed to a record label at all.

During an era when we search for heroes and better alternatives, but the letdown and heartbreak you often feel as a true country music fan seems to linger around every corner, Cody Jinks has risen to become the artist who uncompromisingly delivers on the promises of his potential. In a period when it seems like performers are looking to make excuses of why they no longer want to be considered country, Cody holds firm to his roots, and disproves the notions you can’t be creative within country’s confines.

With The Wanting and After The Fire, Cody Jinks, his songwriting collaborators, and his musical accomplices in the Tonedeaf Hippies do what is very difficult in this crowded day and age of music, which is deliver a double dose of something that keeps you interested and engaged throughout, while also helping to define this era’s top offerings from artists who don’t believe country music is a limiting creative experience, but that it’s a timeless art form for sharing joys, drowning sorrows, and conveying troubles with others for collective commiseration and understanding. True country music is there for you, always, and so is the music of Cody Jinks. (read full review)

Chris Knight – Almost Daylight

Never has wisdom sounded so simple, and truth rung so true as it does in a Chris Knight song. In his sharp Kentucky accent and plainspoken language, this anti-star can impart learning on the level of the Dalai Lama if you listen. If you were worried he’d lose his fastball from waiting a full seven years since his last studio album, you misspent some grey hairs. Almost Daylight is just another Chris Knight record, which means a menu offering of meaningful songs that draw upon setting with severe cunning and insight, and establish character in a manner other major song smiths only wish they could master.

Chris Knight makes you realize things about the common struggles and simple pleasures of life that would have otherwise passed you by. He can turn the trite and obvious into moments of magic and epiphany that reset your entire perspective on the world, all while relying on the most colloquial of vocabulary as his medium. An entire catalog of self-help material can’t help motivate and embolden your worn down spirit as much as the message in his song “Go On.” This hole we’ve dug for ourselves with all this left and right stuff is so deep we can’t even see over the edge to the eternal truths of life, but Chris Knight’s “The Damn Truth” brings it all back into perspective for everyone.

It’s uncanny how Chris Knight takes such simple notions, and turns them into exaltations for the common man, their common struggles, and imparts solutions to everyday dilemmas. He’s the headwaters of erudite knowledge served in plainspoken terms that all other country songwriters seek. Almost Daylight is a roadmap to find them; a textbook into their truths. But even the most studious will still be pupils, while Chris Knight proves once again he’s the master. (read full review)

Mike and the Moonpies – Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold

If this all had played out like it should have, The Moonpies would have mashed down on the accelerator with a new record and released something with even more hard charging honky tonk country songs to fuel new their intense live shows for the next year or so, and sent this thing into the everloving stratosphere. And so what do they do? They fly to London to record an album of mostly understated and nuanced material at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony. Risky? You bet. Out of left field? No doubt. Bold? To put it mildly. Successful? Speaking to anyone who has heard it, the answer would be most resoundingly “yes.”

The Moonpies navigated themselves out of their comfort zone on purpose, wrote and recorded a record taking a holistic approach to everything involved in it, and worked without a net. Where many bands and artists probably think, “Shit, wouldn’t it be cool to fly to Europe and record at Abbey Road?” Mike and the Moonpies actually did it. They called their own bluff like many of us wish we had the guts to do.

One thing it’s easy to settle upon when listening to Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold is that Mike and the Moonpies are one of the most interesting and unexpected bands in all of country music at the moment. And their efforts should not just be resigned to the Austin honky tonk mindset. From London and all the parts in between, Mike and the Moonpies should be considered on of the preeminent projects in all of country music, and so should Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold. (read full review)

Emily Scott Robinson – Traveling Mercies

With stunning insight, masterful use of character and setting, and tastefully sparse but complete and fulfilling arrangements, a journey through Traveling Mercies makes you a changed human with lessons learned, perspectives expanded, and moments cherished, not dissimilar to the experience of taking a long road trip across the country following a loose itinerary of friends to visit and places to see.

A travel record at heart, with stories that enchant your perspective similar to the heightened senses that speeding down the highway and taking in new scenery imparts, songs like “Westward Bound” and “White Hot Country Mess” make for enjoyable listens. But this is just the canvas that Emily Scott Robinson stretches taut to create space for her most brilliant master strokes of expression, including in moments where her songwriting becomes so cutting, cunning, poignant, and resonant, it’s only fair to characterize it as authoritative in quality.

Not dissimilar to how you often recall your most warmest or touching memories in quiet moments of reflection, an open heart will entrust similar moments to pondering the stories of Traveling Mercies. Because in an era full of noise and ever-present distraction and priority, this is an album worth slowing down for, reflecting upon, and cherishing fondly. (read full review)

Ian Noe – Between The Country

On Between The Country, people die, and the light of the world is clouded out by the gloom of hard times, broken hearts, and unsettled minds. The American dream is forgotten in the forlorn struggle for everyday survival, where death isn’t always regarded as a catastrophic outcome, but is sometimes seen as sweet relief from earthly burden, and one marks themselves fortunate if they even receive a proper grave or a marker upon it when the Master calls. There’s no mistaking that the moribund pall that hangs over some of the hills and valleys of some of Kentucky’s most depressed regions fuel such harrowing accounts of life and death, whether it takes shape as a murder ballad similar to those in the historical past, or an account of meth addiction that’s all too real today.

But there’s also a strange comfort to Ian Noe’s music, with the stories of tough times and tragic characters resetting one’s perspective on many of the silly concerns of much of modern life, while the arcane nature of these songs offers a warmth and familiarity amid the constant march of progress. Ian Noe’s own story is just now beginning to take shape. But the promise and excitement he sows in the ten songs of Between The Country is something that’s inescapable. (read full review)

Charles Wesley Godwin – Seneca

When you hear an artist like Charles Wesley Godwin sing, there is no need to power cycle your sense of disbelief. The sinewy roots of West Virginia’s hardscrabble existence seem to be intertwined with Godwin’s synapses and muscle tissue, almost as if he’s a construct of the land itself, like a scrub tree clinging to life on the ridge side of an especially steep holler.

Seneca is the name of this project, as well as a 20-mile creek that feeds into the Potomac in Pendleton County. And though you may want to stop short of calling it concept record, Seneca certainly encapsulates the West Virginia experience in a capacity where all the songs work greater than the sum of their parts, and impart both a love and history of the region along economic, geographic, familial, and romantic lines for Godwin personally. It is a love letter to West Virginia and the bloodlines from whence he came, and that sense of everlasting love and appreciation is something everyone can relate to, regardless of the setting of their own personal stories.

Just like Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, and others from the depressed regions of Kentucky and West Virginia who took those inspirations to large crowds across the country, Charles Wesley Godwin’s stories are forged through the authenticity of a local experience, but are worthy of being enjoyed by a national and international audience. (read full review)

The Steel Woods – Old News

The Steel Woods have arrived ladies and gentlemen, and with them a whole new legacy of Southern rock to enjoy in the present tense, and look forward to for the foreseeable future. The band’s first album Straw in the Wind smartly took the Southern rock template, modernized it, and put a signature stamp on it by bringing a metal attitude to the music, and texturing the songs with dark chords and themes that could chill you to the bone. But you also got these sense that this was a project still trying to find its footing and could have used a little variety. It was manned by accomplished artists from other projects moving forward with a solid concept, but they were still feeling themselves and each other out, and interested to see how their unique brew of music might be received by the public.

With Old News, they lay it all to bear, leave nothing to chance, throw out their best shots, and scream for rightful consideration right beside bands like Blackberry Smoke and Whiskey Myers as the best Southern Rock the here and now has to offer. 15 tracks go from pure Southern rock, to stripped down country, to country metal hybrids, and a bunch of covers that are hard to quit hitting repeat on, and that all come together for what will go down as a career-defining record.

This isn’t just a run-of-the-mill sophomore release from an up-and-coming band. The Steel Woods set out to press a Southern Rock opus with Old News, and though it’s always prudent to sit on such lofty proclamations until time has made its own determinations on an effort, this record is certainly a candidate for such an “opus” distinction. (read full review)

208 Comments

congrats to the nominees!!! Well deserved!!!
For honorable mention, I’d throw in Heartache Medication by Jon Pardi, Honky Tonk Time Machine by King George, Magnolia by Randy Houser, and Stronger than the Truth by Reba!!! A great year for music indeed

My clear #1 is Mike and the Moonpies. It is definitely the most unique album I’ve heard all year and everything on it is damn near perfect. I’d probably have Highwomen number 2. Several song of the year contenders on there.

One other note. I love love love the first 4 songs on Ian Noe’s album, but it kind of fizzles out a bit for me after that. Still probably in my top 10, but the back part knocks it from the top spots.

This is crazy to me, the second half of Ian Noe’s album is insanely good as well with Meth Head (maybe the strongest song on the record), Between the Country and If Today Doesn’t Do Me In. The middle lags a little to me.

It’s my pick for best album of the year, even though I don’t think it’s really Country.

“Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold” will probably run away with this and rightfully so; however, “Traveling Mercies” was my most-played record of the year. Emily Scott Robinson is a refreshing newcomer to the scene, and I cannot wait to hear what she puts out in the future. She is also extremely endearing and captivating live.

A good list of nominees! My personal #1 this year is Emily Scott Robinson’s “Traveling Mercies,” by a wide margin. I had no idea who she was until I learned of this album, and now I hate to miss a single thing she does. In my opinion, no album reveled more about an artist this year than Robinson’s, as she tackles extremely difficult topics with nuance, grace, and pure honesty. And despite the heavy content of some of her songs, the album is still fun to listen to over and over again. Robinson is also great to her fans, and I was overjoyed to be able to purchase a signed record from her website.

To me there is a significant gap between the Top 4 and the bottom 2 on my list. I know it isn’t country, but it was reviewed on this site, but the album I find myself listening to on repeat from this year is Whiskey Myers’ self titled album. It is just so damn awesome from start to finish. The other album that I think should’ve been considered was Joseph Huber’s “Moondog”.

Just to address why Tyler Childers and “Country Squire” did not make the nominees list a bit more in-depth:

I believe it’s a great record, definitely Top 20 this year, and maybe Top 10. Every time I post anything about “Country Squire” or Tyler Childers, the comments section fills up with complaints about the record and charges of him being a sellout. And I always defend Childers and the effort. However, that record is just not resonating like his previous record “Purgatory,” which won the 2017 Saving Country Music Album of the Year. In fact right now, “Purgatory” is streaming and selling significantly better than “Country Squire,” despite being two years older. I think you could make the case that “Purgatory” was just as important, or more important that “Country Squire” this year.

Again, I’m not trying to bad mouth the record or slight Tyler Childers. He very well might be the most important ARTIST in country music in 2019, at least in the non-mainstream realm. But in an exceptionally tight year for top releases, I felt it fell just very slightly short of the top tier.

That’s a fair assessment. At least within my circles, Purgatory continues to be the gateway drug that gets mainstream folks through the door to “alternative” country. Country Squire feels important to me due to the sheer amount of press and outreach it has had, beside being a tremendous album in its own right. I heard All Yourn at a gas station the other day, which a few short years ago would of been hard to imagine. I agree that Tyler Childers is the most important non-mainstream country artist right now.

Erin Enderlin – Faulkner County is MY favorite release of 2019, if not the most played simply because it came out so late after her parade of EPs.
Of the nominees, Mike and the Moonpies is in my Top Ten.
I prefer The Wanting to Cody Jinks’ other release, just because of “Same Kind of Crazy as Me”.
Charley Crockett’s The Valley ought to be in there somewhere with Aaron Watson’s Red Bandana. I learned about all of these first, here–keep up the good work Saving Country Music!

Charlie Marie’s is amazing and if it was longer I would consider it as the best but I have to go with “Seneca” by Charles Wesley Godwin. This album is phenomenal and does not tire. The production, songwriting, and delivery is excellent.

I kind of agree. After the Fire has some good tracks but it’s not a consistently good album like many of the others on this list. The Wanting sounds like a compilation of all the songs that didn’t make After the Fire. This was essentially a delayed double album, and I can count on less than one hand the times that a double album was ever necessary

Charlie Maire’s is amazing but due to the length, I cannot have it as my #1. “Seneca” by Charles Wesley Godwin is just too good. It is by far the most played album this year for me. It does not tire. Songwriting, production, and delivery is excellent. You cant ask much more from an Appalachian country album than what is provided here. Well done sir.

This was a really tough ranking. Ian Noe made an exceptional debut album, Cody Jinks had the two solid efforts (I preferred “After the Fire” but both were great), Charlie Marie and Emily Scott Robinson set the gold standard for women in Country, and The Steel Woods and Mike and the Moonpies both put out great, unique albums. There isn’t a weak contender in the bunch and I could probably be convinced of any order that someone else sees fit. But for me, Charles Wesley Godwin was the most original and genuine of the bunch. A unique voice, phenomenal songwriting, and the most complete album on the list. He provided variety in songs without sacrificing sincerity and delivered a country masterpiece.

Great nominees here, but I think Good Old Fashioned Pain by Taylor Alexander deserves a nod. I’m surprised it didn’t make this list as one of the very few 2-guns-up reviews of the year. It’s definitely one of my favorites!

Don’t be surprised if Yola gets mention in Song of the Year consideration. She had a great album, but some of the production felt a little canned and inconsistent in my opinion, keeping it out of the very top tier.

EP:
Grant Gilbert – Loud & Clear
Triston Marez – That Was All Me
Kathlyn Legendre – Making It Up
Triston Marez – Until I Found You
Jon Wolfe – Feels Like Country Music
Wyatt Massingille – No Jones On The Jukebox
Alice & The Underground – Cocaine & Cabernet

Pleased to see that Chris Knight made the list. That one would be my pick for album of the year! The three I can think of that I enjoyed that haven’t been mentioned on the list or within the article are the Charley Crockett, Hayes Carll and Whiskey Myers releases.

Too hard to pick. I’ll have to spend more time with each album, all of which I enjoyed. I don’t envy having to choose who to nominate or even the honorable mentions, but I would certainly include Georgette Jones and Vince Gill among the honorables. Both had great albums this year. And I would move Erin Enderlin into the nominees. As usual, you’ve done a great job all year, Trigger.

I would replace Old News with Beautiful Lie from Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis, but I’m sure it’ll be on the essential albums list, and Old News was great, too.

I’d put the top 8 into 2 tiers, with Almost Daylight, Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold, and Traveling Mercies on the podium.

I was sold on Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold from the first listen, and I keep going back to it. I think these guys are the top band for our kind of music at the moment and should be Artist of the Year. This one has been my AOTY choice since it came out.

Almost Daylight has instantly become my favorite Chris Knight album by a long shot, and that is truly saying something. This guy can write circles around just about anybody.

I recently went back and listened to all my favorite albums from 2019, and even though I love and cherish those 2 albums, Traveling Mercies is just better. Emily Scott Robinson takes hold of your emotions and steers them around seemingly at will. Deep feelings, from hopeless grief to unbreakable joy, well up listening to these songs. Her voice is quite simply a gift. I’m not a production snob, but I’d bet that those who are can find little to complain about on this one; it’s flawless as far as I can tell.
Flawless, timeless, special. AOTY.

P.S. – After the Fire is head and shoulders above The Wanting, though I like both.

I really wish that Dave Cobb had taken a similar production approach to “The Highwomen” as he did to Ian Noe’s album, where the vocals are out front, there’s space between the signals, and a vibrancy to the record. “The Highwomen” is still a solid project and will be on the Essential Albums list. But the production held it back from top consideration. Don’t worry though, the rest of the media will anoint that record #1.

I’ll echo what many people are saying here and go with Seneca. What an amazing find! Everything about the album from his voice to the instrumentation make you really feel the connection he has with West Virginia, and I love the Appalachian sound.

The album is not too long and has no fillers, and is definitely my most played album this year. I also liked Flatland Cavalry, Emily Scott Robinson, Cody Jinks, among many others. But have to go with Charles!

Oh, man. Except for Chris Knight, we’ve never been so different at the end of the year. I’ll go back to give another listen to the ones you nominated. It really feels like a down year. I’m having trouble getting to 18 when a decade ago, I was putting together lists of 50.

I wish I could get into Seneca. As an appalachian boy, that album should be right up my album. But, I can’t shake the Celtic sound and it’s filmy polish. It’s county music for NPR, not drinking shine in a parking lot.

Haha Haha haha….best line I’ve heard in a while Hop! Oh man, that describes so much of what is being released right now. If NPR is all over it, I’m automatically suspicious. Not saying they don’t get it right now and then, but yeah there is a big cultural difference between the NPR crowd and appalachia, or for that matter midwesterners with a hillbilly bone.

I’m a first generation Irish American and I tend to like my Irish traditional music like I like my country music. Hard (e.g., Altan, Dervish, Lunasa). So Seneca never really struck me as Celtic music or even country music, although he’s singing about country topics. Sonically, I think of it as what used to be called contemporary folk music back before there were such things as Alt Country and Americana. He reminds me of Gordon Lightfoot and a lesser known but great singer/songwriter from New Jersey named John Gorka.

I have Ian Noe as my #1 for this year, with Mike & the Moonpies a close second. Seneca is also definitely worth the consideration. Overall, this was a great year for real country music, even despite all the noise about Old Town Road and the dearth of real music in the mainstream. When Tyler Childers drops a very good album and it’s maaaaybe a top-8, depending on the listener, you know it’s been an awesome year.

For me, it has to be Seneca. The songs are written in such a beautifully poetic and descriptive style and delivered in a striking “Storyteller Style.” Coal Country and Strawberry Queen can honestly never get old.

Troubled Times by Ben Jarrell was on your top albums for awhile there. I love the traditional country, Americana, and outlaw that’s being mentioned on your list. But moving into 2020, I’m excited about bands that are driving the country genre in a new, powerful, and unique way while still paying homage to the best parts of country music through the century. Troubled Timea is diverse, nuanced, and a unique album from the first song to the last. I think it deserves a serious look again as an album every country fan needs to hear.

I always knew I was in the minority and it would never be on the list but Troubled Times has been played endlessly and probably more often than any other album this year. Getting an actual physical copy was much harder to come by. I emailed Ben after the CD I purchased never came and he told me he’d take care of it if he had to do it himself. A few weeks later a box came and inside was a CD, Vinyl LP, an autographed poster, and last but not least by any stretch………hand written autographed lyrics to MY favorite song of the year Black Helicopter. I love the Moonpies, Cody’s, Steel Blossoms, and Charlie Marie as well. Who says a website/blog can’t change your life?

Although I don’t consider it a country album, Ian Noe’s Between the Country would get my vote from this list. Moonpies are great but I enjoyed previous albums more. And anyone wow knocks Country Squire needs to listen to it in sequence the way it’s meant to be heard. Exceptional album that flows together like Tyler had imagined it to. And that’s what Sturgill and him accomplished

Mike and those Moonpies are an amazing live show, and Cheap Silver was a pleasant surprise. It was a huge risk and Mike and the boys hit it out of the park. I never get tired of listening to every track.

I agree wholeheartedly with your Childers take. Purgatory is a near perfect album and even though Country Squire is damn good it just felt like something was missing to me. But back to the nominees, I found myself going back to Ian Noe’s album more often than any other release this year and it continues to hold itself above all the others for me.

Travelling Mercies or Seneca for me, probably leaning towards Emily’s album. It creates a picture of a whole person. I think it feels very female too – wistful, but resilient and practical. Everything is here – the sentiment of good memories, the hurt and devastation of bad ones (The Dress is a masterpiece of subtle songwriting), the life of a working musician that is ‘Borrowed Rooms’ and the true wonderment of a deepening love that marks ‘Better With Time’. Throw into that the wilder moments of ‘White Hot Country Mess’ and the self-righting mechanisms that ultimately save us that permeate the moving on of ‘the Run’. Simply recorded, with a beautiful clear, never strident voice. It’s like falling in love with every aspect of someone not just the charming flashy bits. As personal an album as Joni Mitchell’s – ‘Blue’. I will be playing this years from now.

Mike and The Moonpies by a landslide! I drove 100 miles to see these guys play live, simply on the merits of this record. Met the band, bought the album on vinyl , had it autographed by the entire band. The title track says it all “one more toast to the lost souls…may we never be found” Atmosphere…lyrics…melodies baby, oh those melodies…Young in Love is sublime, Omar, their bass player told me that was his favorite track! You Look Good in Neon…perfect Honky-Tonk song…Miss Fortune, Oh Yeah! If you Want A fool Around…Killer weeper in the great countrypolitan tradition. This album just came out of nowhere at just the right time and it hits all the right notes for me.

“The Valley” was definitely the record that got the most plays from me. I also wish that “Good Old Fashioned Pain” and “Fried Chicken & Evil Woman” made the list, but perhaps I just lean too far into the eclectic.

Of the list, I’d say “Between the Country”, followed by “Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold” (polished to a high sheen), and then prolly “Charlie Marie”. Overall I like Cody Jink’s twin releases, although few songs from either stuck with me enough to make my heavy rotations.

Some good albums this year. I agree with the decision to not include Country Squire for these purposes, even though I think it was the album of the year, as it would just turn into a pissing match of people trying to prove how country they are by accusing Tyler of selling out or complaining about the album’s “overproduction”. Leaving him out of this allows the light / conversation to shine on the other deserving folks on the list.

Now granted, if I thought that Tyler Childers had the runaway #1 album this year, or even a Top 5, then I would have nominated him and taken the body blows. If I had expanded the nominees to 9 or 10, he definitely would have been included here, and it would have been nothing to add one or two more nominees. But make no mistake, while there’s a smattering to comments asking where he is, there would have been reams of comments bitching about how terrible he is if he was on this list, and it would have bogged down the discussion. Tyler Childers doesn’t need my help. He’s about to embark on a sold out arena tour. Let’s give artists like Ian Noe and Emily Scott Robinson their opportunity in the spotlight and not allow people complaining about Tyler Childers to steal their thunder.

You know, me personally, I think there was three LPs that wowed me more than most this year. One didn’t make even the long list, Hayes Carll’s ‘What It Is’; then one that made the ‘utmost consideration and attention’ list, Croy & The Boys ‘Howdy High-rise; but the big one, and my vote, goes to Mike & The Moonpies ‘Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold’ – fresh, beautiful and brilliant.

I have no doubt that Mike and the Moonpies – Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold is the best album this year. Not only was it unexpected (hello surprise album release!), but it was incredibly bold and innovative.

For me its Whiskey Myers all day. I’m obcessed with Mike and the Moonpies new one as well. Just a little confused why you would include The Steel Woods(who I love as well) and not Whiskey Myers. Whiskeys self produced hasn’t left my daily list since it came out.

Moonpies get my vote. I liked After the Fire quite a bit more than The Wanting even though I liked it too. I just wish Jinks would go back to writing solo, I think he’s a much better writer than most of his co writers

Thank you for the reviews as always. This was a weak year in my opinion, but I would be very happy with Chris Knight, Charlie Marie, Cody Jinks, Ian Noe, or Whiskey Myers.

I’ve been surprised at the love for Godwin, MMP, and Steel Woods. I was really excited to hear all 3 based on reviews and comments here, but all just seemed overrated. I left them on playlists far too long trying to like them.

Hopefully Felker pulls himself together and Childers finds a good direction for the next one.

1) The album is career-defining, as Trigger notes in the review. It solidifies their sound in the southern rock stratosphere.

2) The writing on all the original tunes is superb. Unlike many other similarly styled bands, their songs touch on a diverse array of themes and they never rely on genre cliches.

3) They knock every cover out of the park. While it’s impossible to claim that they have the “definitive” version of a legendary southern rock staple like “Whipping Post,” they give it a great treatment to which I return constantly. Their take on Petty’s “Southern Accents” is such a powerful and novel interpretation of the Petty tune that it becomes something else entirely.

4) They blend genres so tastefully that it truly sets them apart from many of their southern rock contemporaries. The sheer diversity of style and flavor is unparalleled by other bands that I equally admire. Yet despite sonic diversity in this album, it still feels like a cohesive piece where all the songs fit perfectly with who The Steel Woods are as a band.

Moonpies followed by a tie between Noe and Godwin, and Jinks rounding out the bunch.

I’m also with the commenters saying Taylor Alexander’s album was fantastic as well; definitely an essential album this year, along with Gabe Lee’s Farmland. I’m also probably in the minority of people who think Country Squire was a better overall album than Purgatory (I’m a sucker for song cycle and a narrative thread), even though I think Purgatory has better songs.

I’ve been listening to Cody Jinks pretty much non stop this year. I thoroughly enjoy The Wanting & After The Fire. This is the kind of country music I want to hear more of.
TC’s album is very good too, but like Trigg stated he’s about to set out on an arena tour that will force him into the public consciousness of uninitiated true country music fans.

Charlie Marie’s album is my album of the year. Yes it’s an EP but the quality from songs 1-5 is top notch. I love the authenticity that Rhinestones brings in both music and lyric. Rodeo takes me back to a long lost summer and is probably my favorite of the bunch. This album talks to me in ways that others can’t and it’s my most played album of 2019. I turn to it both when I’m feeling down and when I’m on top of the world. I can’t wait for more from her.

Hat tips to Michaela Anne’s Desert Dove and Mike & The Moonpies’ Cheap Silver and Country Gold who both should win this award in any given year. Many great options to choose from in the list.

Mike and the Moonpies definitely gets my vote for #1. Had never heard of them before and absolutely loved every song on that album.
Country Squire was another favorite album too and would be #2. The songs Country Squire and Bus Route were great songs that stuck in my head all summer long.
#3 is Vincent Neil Emerson’s “Fried Chicken & Evil Women and #4 would be the new Jason James.

Hey Trigger, how about a writeup on your favorite country Christmas songs or albums? I have collected so many this year ( I have a Christmas collection of about 3600 songs from all genres) and would love to know your thoughts.
I am so grateful I found this website this year. For a New Englander, its nice to hear a voice of reason in true country music!

I posted on your “anticipated albums of 2019 list” something like: “Ian Noe will have the songwriting release of the year” only because I was already obsessed with a live recording of one of his shows online. I listened to that live recording a hundred times like it was my new favorite album, just him and his guitar. I think he captured that and more on the album. I’ve seen him twice now and he has such a raw passion in his singing that just pulls you in and you zone out the surroundings. This is my favorite album of the year, no question.

Also this year I saw Charlie Marie play a county fair in rural Connecticut to about ten people sitting on bleachers after a traditional German band and I still got chills from Countryside. Hopefully, this record will give her more exposure to build on.

Others nominees that I prefer:
Mike and the Moonpies
Emily Scott Robinson

For me, Emily Scott Robinson’s “Traveling Mercies” is my winner. The songwriting just brings out every emotion possible, from love, laughter, Joy, and grief. Her album is some of the best songwriting I have ever heard. “Seneca” is a close second for me.

This year’s crop of releases was not as strong as last year’s, but still some good ones. Agree on Moonpies and Chris Knight.

My fave of the year was Shane Smith, followed by The Lowdown Drifters, Flatland Calvary, Moonpies and Kendall Marvel. I based my list mostly on Spotify plays. Didn’t love the Cody Jinks that much. It’s solid. It doesn’t cause me pain. But neither of them was in the same league as “Adobe Sessions.”

Thanks for the list, Trigger! I know it’s gotta be rough presenting anything even relatively opinionated for us vultures to pick apart and crow about!

I was hoping to see Gabe Lee’s Farmland on here. One my favorites of this year.

Shocked (but pleasantly surprised) to see Ian’s album make the cut. He’s wise far beyond his songwriting years but I know a lot of listeners feel he’s closer to Dylan than Haggard.

For what it’s worth, I personally feel that Childers has better examples of songwriting and vocal abilities than he displayed on Country Squire. I also feel that his earthy and perfectly imperfect strain doesn’t mesh well with sparkly clean session work from the studio band, and I trust his finest work has yet to be released. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Moonpies. It came out of nowhere, so it was a surprise. It was recorded at Abbey Road. It has great songs, wonderfully written, played, and produced. It is country down to the bone. And it floats out a message onto the lake of public perception that is both radical and true:

one last toast to the lost souls:
may we never be found…
like silver and gold.

Money changes people. Mike and the Moonpies keep it country because they know who they are, where they come from, and what they love.

Joseph Huber – Moondog… another solid effort! “After You” is song of the year quality. Great list though. not really feeling Seneca, guess I’m in the minority on that after reading the comments. Love this site!

My record of the year is Joseph Huber’s “Moondog” but he constantly releases records that incredible. I’m glad to see others get some much deserved attention. Of the group listed my favorite is Ian Noe, go back to that record often. Moonpies never disappoint, as good as it gets and they personify saving country music.

Good Old Fashioned Pain by Taylor Alexander is still my favorite from this year. I was hoping to see it on this list, but given the strong competition and it being released so early in the year I’m not too surprised it’s not.

I’m glad to see so many people mentioning Taylor Alexander’s “Good Old Fashioned Pain.” I had it as one of the best records at the half way pole of the year, but didn’t see very much reaction to it. Good to see it continuing to bubble. It will definitely be on the “Essential Albums” list.

I’d have to put Gethen Jenkins—Western Gold on the list, and bump Charlie Marie (good songs, but the vocals are a little too acrobatic for me).
Regardless, you gotta put Mike and the Moonpies at the top. Outstanding album.

INTO THE BLUE–Alice Wallace: Alice’s album, a slice of her own modern Americana songwriting style combined with the old-school country-rock of heroes like Linda Ronstadt and Emmlyou Harris, does for 2019 what Lindi Ortega’s LIBERTY did in 2018, and give a very existential picture of the parched world of the Southwest in general, and Southern California in particular. Three standout tracks: “Echo Canyon”; “Desert Rose”; and “Santa Ana Winds”.

EVERY GIRL (Trisha Yearwood): Trisha’s first album of all-new material since 2007’s HEAVEN, HEARTACHE, AND THE POWER OF LOVE shows that she’s still very much a force to be reckoned with in the post-Bro/Metro-Bro era. She’s nearly three decades removed from “She’s In Love With The Boy”, but she still has what it takes. Two stand-out tracks: “Home” (written by Karla Bonoff back in 1975), and “The Matador” (written by Gretchen Peters).

And if you can stretch things, there’s Linda’s LIVE IN HOLLYWOOD, from an HBO special she taped at CBS Television City in L.A. in the spring of 1980, showed Linda at the height of her powers as an American music icon. Granted, “Blue Bayou”, “Willing”, and “Faithless Love” are as close as one gets to anything all that “country”; but it does include a version of her 1975 #1 smash “You’re No Good” stretched to a dramatic six and a half minutes. And as her good friend Dolly Parton said: “Linda could literally sing ANYTHING.”

Surprised to see all the Moonpies album love. 8 songs and only a couple stood out to me. It was alright but haven’t went back to it much after first week, maybe I need to give it another chance.

For me it’s Jinks. What he did with both albums is impressive. Neither is I’m Not the Devil, but they are both great albums. Together my number one. Also enjoyed Chris Knight album, especially the damn truth. Although his vocal limitations don’t allow me to put entire album on repeat, except for the damn truth. Also enjoyed Jason James album as well.

It should go to the best album regardless if the artist has released better themselves in the past. If that’s the case you can pretty much remove a slew of artists who may have released their best work years ago. IMO either of Jinks albums alone best any of the albums on this list with the combination of singing and songwriting, The albums together is a no brainer. The guys vocals on record keep getting better and the songwriting stays fresh, prolific at this point.

Moonpies.
CSSCG is a brilliant album. Originals so well written and covers changed just enough to give them that Moonpie signature, but not disrespect the earlier versions. These songs flow seamlessly into their live show and the mix is flawless. Usually, on an album of 8 songs, you’ll have one or two that you could skip. Not this album! The band is jammin and Mikes vocals are spot on, adapting to each song and really selling them.
Yes. No doubt. Moonpies.